This reminds me of 1992 when I was based in Nicaragua and on a hunch wrote a profile of another Guatemalan, Rigoberta Menchu, days before the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. Since the U.N. International Year of Indigenous Peoples was around the corner, it seemed like Menchu had a shot. She won that year.

Afterward, though, allegations surfaced that the biography that launched Menchu as an indigenous icon contained falsities about her past. Menchu has been a two-time presidential candidate in her country, losing badly both times, and hasn't been able to capture a broader role as a spokeswoman for indigenous peoples.

She’s not alone as a laureate who’s been questioned. Read this thought provoking essay on whether the Nobel “Peace” Prize is even relevant anymore, given recent awards.

If Paz y Paz were to win the prize, she'd be Guatemala's third Nobelist after Menchu and poet/writer Miguel Angel Asturias. Mexico, a nation with eight times the population, also has three: writer Octavio Paz (1990), chemist Mario Molina (1995) and diplomat Alfonso Garcia Robles (1982).